Windows 10: Free upgrade still working using old keys

A few days after the 29th-July free upgrade date passed, a few people on this forum (myself included) were still reporting that new clean installs of Win10 could still be done using old Win7 keys.
Not talking about re-installs, but new installs with old Win7 keys that had never been used.

Has anyone tried this again recently ? Curious to know if Win10 can still be activated with old Win7 keys,

Cheers

:)

 

Re Activate after Motherboard change

Thanks for reporting back Rob, to help others.

Was this a retail Windows 8 Product Key that was used previously to activate free Upgrade, or was this a fresh use of a retail key so we know that the free Upgrade is still working when using an old OS Product Key?

 

Windows 10

Hi Dan. I'm Greg, a volunteer installation specialist and 8 year Windows MVP, here to help you.

If the gaming PC came with Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 you can remove a full retail Product Key, and still get the free Upgrade by inserting the old OS Product Key which is in an extended grace period until approx Dec 31st. There is also this offer for free Upgrade
which expires then:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-...

Then when you activate the new PC with the old retail key, you might need to use Support to retrieve the old key that is still associated with the old PC but do not fear because you are always allowed to move retail Windows Product Keys to wherever you want
them.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

 

Who can say - it may well be region dependent. Try it and let us know?

 

I haven't tried recently. All my devices already have a DL so I can't test it.

 

Windows 10 free upgrade offer still works. I tested today. First I installed and activated Windows 8.1 (I used an old Windows 8 key that had never been used) and after this I upgrade to Windows 10.

Windows 10 - Upgrade Installation - Windows 10 Forums

Note that Windows 10 upgrade installation does not accept Windows 7/8.x product key, so you need to select the option I'm reinstalling Windows 10 on this PC (see screenshot below).





You can also clean install Windows 10 and activate it directly with your unused Windows 7/8.x product key.

Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums

 

Was Windows 10 ever installed and activated on that PC, prior to your test?

 

No.

I created a new virtual machine and I installed on a virtual machine (VMware Workstation 12 Player), when I installed Windows 8.1 and upgraded to Windows 10.

 

OK, just wanted to make sure.